Wasps

My scientific studies began with social wasps and will conclude with
them, it seems. Nearly 60 years of studying the social behaviour of
wasps and hornets in Europe, Australia and Papua New Guinea has
proved a very productive and exciting field of enquiry and with very
little competition from other colleagues - an advantage of working
with an animal that can cause pain or even death and has modest
commercial value! Virtually all my wasp research has been done as
a privateer with little or no outside monies, scholarships or consultancy
income. The only exception was my postgraduate studies at
Rothamsted on an Agricultural Research Council scholarship (thank
you, Professor Vincent Wigglesworth!). The European wasp awareness
program in Canberra during the past decade has helped fund and
provide material for my current research.

The WASP book published in 1973 was a significant highlight in my
waspish career, but if we can define the chemical identity of the sterilizing
pheromone in the European wasp, that will be the pinnacle, the
culmination of a lifetime and especially the past 20 years research into
queen control of reproductive physiology in social wasps.